Breathless giggles
and
toothless smiles,
bright-eyed innocence
and
unconditional love.
See the children
play in the sun,
the shadows
of their faces
filled with
light.
Their small throats full of
improvised songs and memorized prayers,
both offered freely to
the pale blue sky.
For hours,
For years,
For decades.
Life settles on them,
lifts them up,
as the melodious bells of innocence
turn to a
discordant death-knell,
and flowers wilt
away the will to live.
And the questions
in their eyes
take root,
and grow
unanswered.
And now clouds gather,
dark and threatening,
full of dread powers
and
poisoned winds.
A shadow of a
human being watches
from the edges,
its stench lost
in the wayward
wind.
It approaches
One,
alone
in its sandbox,
putting its life into
an hourglass
to be flipped over,
and over, and over…
Wind-driven rain
drowns the cry for help,
and now a toothless smile
slowly slips on the mantle
of the lonely
One,
now sitting in its window,
clear as rivers,
who dreams
it was one
of the children
playing
under the clouds.
Beyond Panic 